Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 45,920 Shares of Twist Bioscience Corporation $TWST

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Twist Bioscience by 36.7% in the fourth quarter, buying 45,920 additional shares and bringing its total holdings to 171,206 shares worth about $5.43 million.
• Several other institutional investors also raised their positions, while insiders were net sellers over the last quarter, including director Jan Johannessen and director Melissa A. Starovasnik.
• Analysts remain mixed but generally positive on the stock: seven rate it a Buy, one rates it a Sell, and the consensus view is Moderate Buy with a $58 price target, even as Twist reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss despite 19.3% revenue growth.

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST - Free Report) by 36.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 171,206 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 45,920 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.28% of Twist Bioscience worth $5,431,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in Twist Bioscience by 71.1% in the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 4,082,319 shares of the company's stock valued at $114,876,000 after buying an additional 1,696,377 shares in the last quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. First Light Asset Management LLC now owns 1,194,883 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,624,000 after purchasing an additional 249,850 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 350.3% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 76,484 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,426,000 after purchasing an additional 59,500 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 6.0% during the 3rd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,142,283 shares of the company's stock valued at $116,564,000 after purchasing an additional 235,679 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Twist Bioscience by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 114,268 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,216,000 after purchasing an additional 38,608 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jan Johannessen sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total value of $673,440.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 17,754 shares of the company's stock, valued at $996,354.48. This represents a 40.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Melissa A. Starovasnik sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.00, for a total transaction of $51,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 25,722 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,311,822. The trade was a 3.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 42,768 shares of company stock valued at $2,390,888 over the last quarter. 3.08% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on TWST shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Twist Bioscience from $50.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Leerink Partners set a $80.00 price target on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Twist Bioscience in a report on Friday, March 27th. Guggenheim lifted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Twist Bioscience from $55.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $58.00.

Twist Bioscience Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:TWST opened at $69.22 on Monday. Twist Bioscience Corporation has a 52-week low of $23.30 and a 52-week high of $80.50. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $57.14 and a 200 day moving average of $46.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.31 billion, a PE ratio of -52.04 and a beta of 2.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.42 and a current ratio of 2.70.

Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ:TWST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($0.71) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.49) by ($0.22). Twist Bioscience had a negative return on equity of 26.73% and a negative net margin of 19.85%.The company had revenue of $110.72 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $107.64 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.66) earnings per share. Twist Bioscience's quarterly revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Twist Bioscience Corporation will post -1.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Twist Bioscience Company Profile

Twist Bioscience Corporation is a synthetic biology company specializing in the development and commercialization of DNA-based products and solutions. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in South San Francisco, California, the company has pioneered a proprietary silicon-based DNA synthesis platform designed for high-throughput production of synthetic genes and oligonucleotides. Twist leverages semiconductor manufacturing techniques to enable precise, scalable synthesis of DNA at speeds and volumes unattainable with traditional methods.

At the core of Twist's offering is its proprietary platform that automates the synthesis of custom DNA fragments, gene libraries, and long oligonucleotides.

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